MotoGP QP - Le Mans

Rossi leads Yamaha 1-2 in qualifying

By Matt Beer

Saturday, May 22nd 2010, 13:01 GMT

Valentino Rossi claimed his first pole position of the 2010 MotoGP season as he led team-mate Jorge Lorenzo in a Yamaha one-two in Le Mans qualifying.

Ducati's Casey Stoner had been fastest for much of the hour, but the Australian did not gain any speed when he switched from hard to soft tyres for the final pole battle, so ended up fourth behind Dani Pedrosa (Honda).

Pedrosa had been the first man to usurp Stoner, but he did not stay in front long before Rossi produced a 1m33.408s lap to claim pole.

A slight loss of time in the middle of the lap meant Lorenzo could not quite match his team-mate, missing pole by 0.054 seconds as he pushed Pedrosa back to third.

The two Ducatis completed the top five, Nicky Hayden lapping just 0.021s down on team-mate Stoner as they took fourth and fifth.

LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet produced another excellent qualifying effort for his home grand prix to claim the final second row place, beating works Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso.

Aleix Espargaro maintained his strong form from this morning to edge into the top ten for Pramac Ducati, lining up behind Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Loris Capirossi on the sole Suzuki.

While Capirossi's team-mate Alvaro Bautista was ruled out for the weekend by his morning crash, the other two men to suffer big accidents in final practice made it to qualifying but struggled for speed - with Ben Spies only 12th for Tech 3 and Pramac's Mika Kallio trailing the field.

Pos  Rider             Bike               Time       Gap
1.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha             1m33.408s
2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha             1m33.462s  + 0.054s
3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda              1m33.573s  + 0.165s
4.  Casey Stoner      Ducati             1m33.824s  + 0.416s
5.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati             1m33.845s  + 0.437s
6.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda          1m34.074s  + 0.666s
7.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda              1m34.204s  + 0.796s
8.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha      1m34.304s  + 0.896s
9.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki             1m34.306s  + 0.898s
10.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati      1m34.514s  + 1.106s
11.  Marco Melandri    Gresini Honda      1m34.523s  + 1.115s
12.  Ben Spies         Tech 3 Yamaha      1m34.920s  + 1.512s
13.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda      1m34.942s  + 1.534s
14.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Interwetten Honda  1m34.979s  + 1.571s
15.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati       1m35.323s  + 1.915s
16.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati      1m35.810s  + 2.402s